25
Israeli soldiers are cast as the killers, while the Palestinians are the hapless bunnies. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is thus reimagined as "Bambi."
We hate to say it, but we can't find anywhere to view this film.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
50
Village Voice by Ben Kenigsberg
Private never reconciles its conflicting impulses, and consequently, the human impact of the struggle--so powerfully explored in "Paradise Now" and "The Syrian Bride" --never acquires the emotional weight it should. The semi-absurdist closer amounts to little more than a knee-jerk declaration of hopelessness.
70
Political realities are a powerful bonus to, rather than the only reason for, Private, an emotionally gripping drama.
70
Selected as Italy's entry for best foreign film at this year's Academy Awards, Private was disqualified for not being predominantly in Italian. A pity, since this meticulously nonpartisan film, even as it makes the case for passive resistance, shows what devastating lack of appeal the strategy has for young Palestinians.
75
New York Daily News by Jack Mathews
Private, Italian director Saverio Costanzo's stunning human drama, would seem like something out of Kafka if it weren't based on real events and a relatively common fact of contemporary Palestinian life.
70
Los Angeles Times by Kevin Thomas
Perhaps inevitably bleak and grueling, Private is also involving and provocative -- and critical of Israeli treatment of Palestinians in an effectively understated manner.
75
TV Guide Magazine by Maitland McDonagh
For a movie rooted in reality, Italian filmmaker Saverio Costanzo's taut psychological drama is in desperate danger of drowning in metaphor.
50
For all its documentary-style urgency, Private often feels forced.
70
The New York Times by Stephen Holden
An emotionally and politically loaded allegory.